Men's Lightweight Crew

Lightweight Men’s Crew Finishes Cup Season with Strong Showing

May 05, 2011

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Lightweight Men's Crew traveled to Philadelphia this past weekend for races against the University of Delaware and the University of Pennsylvania. The Engineers have been building speed all season, so they hoped to close the gap in these races and record competitive times for the league. The conditions on the Schuylkill River were extremely fast, with a strong tail current and a moderate tail wind both pushing crews toward the finish line.

MIT raced Delaware in the morning while Penn traveled to Annapolis to face Navy. In the morning races all crews handled themselves well. The 1V raced a strong race, finishing 12 seconds behind Delaware, its closest margin of the season. In the 1F race, a true barn-burner, crews rowed side-by-side for 2000m, with Delaware barely picking off the Engineers by a two-second margin. Finally, in the 2F race, MIT prevailed, winning by a solid five seconds.

In the afternoon, the 2F continued to work its way through opponents, finishing eight seconds ahead of a strong Penn crew. In the 2V race, a newly assembled MIT squad put up an excellent fight against its Penn counterparts, but ultimately succumbed to a strong sprint, finishing 11 seconds off of the leader. Despite facing an extremely strong freshman crew that had bested Navy that morning, the MIT 1F rowed an extremely competitive race. Though not as close as the morning's duel, the crossed the line six seconds behind the Penn boat. Finally, in the 1V race, the Cardinal and Gray had its closest race of the season. While the Penn boat moved slowly ahead throughout most of the race, MIT never surrendered, holding the margin to eight seconds.

MIT will return to Cambridge where it will prepare for EARC Sprints to be held in two weeks.